You don't taste like strawberries
by Ashes of Stars
Summary: Harry finds Draco hiding after the war and something they experiance together clears up a wonder of Draco's. Post HBP HPDM slash implied. Oneshot.


Written for my internal battle against the cliché 'He tasted like strawberries'. I shall not elaborate on my distaste for the phrase, instead will simply leave it to your imagination.

Disclaimers always stand. I do not own the world of Harry Potter, nor anything copyrighted within that world. I simply own the plot, as it is original and my own work.

All he could gain from one little breath, as it ghosted over his lips as the person breathing muttered words of pure detest, contrasted with want, need and seductiveness, into his face, was the smell of a cigarette. Humoured by the simple cliché of someone so torn, Draco wafted away like the scared person he was. Harry had found him, had found that secret place he had spent so long in. It was now the clean sweep after the war; the rounding up of the rogues that had managed to escape the imprisonment to the newly redecorated, security and disciplined strengthened Azkaban.

There had lain Draco, in a dead fast insomnia period within a room of browns and blues; a seventies backlash of happiness that didn't coincide with the horrible feelings flittering through Draco. Just one room, it was, where a kitchen to wash and eat from and a bed also used as a couch. A small toilet was held down the hall with a meagre shower that dripped over the dirtied inhabitants of the building Draco shared with. The blonde never used it much, simply spelled his body clean.

As Harry stumbled through the creaky door, Draco only sat up to await the fate of chains wrapping round his body so that the team of stand by Auror's could take away the ill fated heir for his rightful display of public crime.

"You were my special project," Harry whispered darkly to the blonde as he knelt over the still form of Draco, "The one I told the others not to go after. The vendetta yet to be repaid, and my oh my Draco you were the toughest to find." Harry smiled bitterly, leaning in almost lovingly towards Draco who sat, defiant against anything to come.

Harry leaned in closer, offering more words of bitterness, "You are the one that drove me over the edge, and after you ran like the coward you always knew you were I swore I would get you one day."

Draco smiled, his confidence as a human (not a Malfoy) returning with height, "Took you long enough didn't it?" He smirked, Harry leaning in to give that moment of breath upon another, making the Draco Harry never knew scared with new feeling.

"Yes," He smiled softly, "It did, but here is why; the longer it took to find you so I could rid the world of you it became apparent that to lock you up, to kill you even, would be against what I stand for as Harry, not the boy-who-lived."

"And you mean what exactly?" Draco leaned up, ghosting his own airy flavour over the brunette.

"Have you ever killed anyone Draco?" Harry asked, his fingers gliding up the sides of the blonde who shivered at the gentle touch.

"N-…No…" Draco almost purred, his lips a creaking travesty as he let himself go under the flexing tips of the hands which could kill him at any moment.

"And that is why I cannot kill you…" Harry moved a hand to push a hair from the face of Draco who smiled, a sudden little smile.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because, for the sake of all the good I know you hold and the troubled mind of mine that needs to be settled I need you to go, far away…"

"When?" Draco asked, taken back by the request.

"Now, because I may be giving you a second chance at life that they will not; you are but a death eater to them, not the human that lay within, the one I saw in Myrtle's bathroom that day…" Harry looked away, getting up off his predatory stance and waving his wand to collect a few vitals for Draco, who jumped out of bed before pulling on a few clothes, the death eater statement stinging the blonde harshly; the words had not been spoken with hope and Draco just _knew_ that Harry still believed that Draco was a death eater; it wouldn't matter now whether he was or he wasn't.

"No," Harry stopped him, soon returning to bustling movement which required the tentative yet fast stripping Draco of everything the blonde had on. "Do you not think they haven't been clocking you for the past week? They know you and everything about you." The brunette elaborated with hard tones, before pulling forth a package which had been shrunk from his pocket and conjuring it to full size. "Inside here – be quick now – is clothes – don't touch the necklace just yet it's a portkey – and when you reach the destination there is more clothes, food and anything you should need."

Draco nodded, all sense of being wary thrown out the window at the panic Harry was making. "Where am I going?" He asked whilst looking up at Harry who helped Draco pull on the top from the package.

"I cannot tell you, but you will know when you get there." Harry pulled out a shrunken bag from his back pocket at sized it up, before throwing all of the things he had collected from Draco's apartment inside of it, afterwards placing it on Draco's broad shoulder. The blonde was still holding the brown papered envelope which had held the clothes he was now wearing in it previously, empty now except for the necklace.

"When you get there, five minutes down the road on the left will bring you to a candy store. Inside you will find Maclachlan, and you are to say – are you listening, remember this – Oreos; just not what they used to be."

"Oreos?" Draco asked in bewilderment, having known what the small cookie consisted off, even thinking he knew what it tasted like but never feeling the need to try or put much thought into such a muggle treat.

"Yeah," Harry smiled boyishly at his companion which made the receiver blush with unshed feelings, "Oreos. Now, go!" Harry pushed up the brown envelope.

"Wait," Draco halted, "Thank you…" And with that he pulled Harry into a kiss, something never thought of much before now but really real now it was happening. Draco's tongue flicked against Harry's for a second before the blonde pulled away, his hastiness forgotten momentarily as he looked towards the shifting, yet happy looking Harry, and muttered, "I had to see something; Cho once said you tasted like strawberries." Draco smiled in wonder, "You don't, you taste like bitter-sweet redemption…" The words a goodbye as Draco shoved his hand inside the envelope and disappeared.

Harry, lost in his thoughts, stood still for a while as shadows began casting themselves against the walls as the reflections of lit wands streamed through the door from the hallway and footsteps sounded heavily on the worn carpet outside the room. One second more of happiness made its way through Harry's vocal cords as he whispered to the empty room, "So alike and so far apart…" His amused tone falling flat against the aging browns and blues of the room, which looked so dull now without the blonde complimenting even the saddest of goodbyes.


End file.
